In a 10-3 vote, City Council voted to send the proposed charter change to a lower committee.

Before the vote, the council heard from gun owners who said the ban was not the answer to the nation’s gun problem, adding it violates the Second Amendment.

“Everything we've done so far hasn't worked so it's time to try something different,” said Roger Farnsworth. “Because these people will pick up a stick, a rock or they're going to use their fist. Are you going to cut everybody's hands off?”

No supporters of the charter change spoke Monday night.

It is unclear what legal issues the city could face if the charter change were to be put into effect. A Vermont state law bans a municipality from regulating firearms and ammunition, but the proposed ban is a change to the city’s charter, not an ordinance.

“The resolution is so broad and so vague that you'd be illegalizing most of the rifles and certainly most of the handguns in the city of Burlington,” said Evan Hughes.

Burlington Police Chief Michael Schirling said most gun crime in the city involves hand guns, not assault weapons.

Burlington Police could not provide statistics on how many crimes involves assault weapons as that information was not readily available.

Schirling added when police do see assault weapons, they usually involve cases where felons have them in their custody or in the drug trade

“How many semi-automatic rifles have been shot in the city of Burlington with people injured? None,” said Bob Reid. “How many large capacity magazines were used in those rifles? None.”

Councilor Norm Blais, D-Ward 6, proposed the resolution in light of the mass shooting that killed 26 children and teachers at a Connecticut elementary school.

Blais said the charter’s purpose is to protect the citizens of Burlington and to make the city’s gun laws as safe as those followed by hunters.

Vermont law requires hunters who shoot with semi-automatic weapons to use six cartridges or less, except with a .22 caliber rifle with rim fire cartridges.

“We should afford to the same sort of common sense in the streets that we have in the woods,” Blais said. “We should afford to our citizens, especially our children, the same rights that we give to our deer.”

Opponents of the charter change say banning guns is not the way to go.

“You’ve turned the schools into gun-free zones. It ain’t working out,” Farnsworth said. “I’m not saying arm every student, but what’s so bad about getting rid of the gun-free zone, which end up as a free crime zone.”

Regarding the Sandy Hook shooting, Farnsworth said it’s not an issue about guns, but rather mental health.

“He was going to commit it whether he had a gun or a baseball bat,” he said.

“America doesn’t have a gun problem. America has a heart problem,” said Jeff Marcotte. “Our culture that we live in glorifies killing. We condition our children, we conditioned the generation we live in to be where we are today.”

Other opponents said the city should do more to open up recreational gun use.

“Giving people an outlet for the firearms they currently do have is more appropriate than scaring people from firearms,” said Claude Trahan.

The resolution passed with three amendments. The first changes language to remove "semi-automatic" from the document and replace "ammo clips" with "high-capacity magazines."

The second asks the state legislature to take a look at gun laws, specially in the areas of licensing, mental health and video game violence. The third asks the city's public safety committee to hold public hearings in order to make the city "as safe as [it] can be."

The charter proposal will now go to the charter change commission where it will be rewritten.

If passed again by the council, it will move on to voters in 2014.

If voters pass the charter change, it will finally have to be approved by the state legislature.